Trump just can’t tell a joke. Every time he makes a horrific gaffe, like suggesting that gun owners assassinate Hillary if she wins or urging the Russians to hack State Department servers or throwing a mom and her baby out of a rally, his few surrogates and defenders quickly fall back onto the lame, “it was a joke” defense.

Each of these half-hearted attempts to fob off Trump’s unhinged eruptions as jokes reminds me of the scene in the Sopranos in which two gangsters catch Soprano capo Vito Spatafore frolicking in a gay leather bar. Caught red-handed, he can only desperately claim “It’s a joke!!” The clip’s here (with some blue language)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPJDwWrWjFA

One of the many reasons that I loathe Trump is that he degrades all aspects of politics as a profession, including humor and fun.

Humor is important in a president.  It shows emotional intelligence. It shows that they can make fun of themselves. They can also use it as a weapon against their opponents. To demonstrate that even in times of stress, they are emotionally grounded.  To show that they are just having fun on the job.

Trump does none of this. No smiles. No jokes. No fun.

I’ve selected some clips of presidents or presidential candidates being funny.  Try to imagine Trump delivering any of these one liners, or extended comedy bits, or formal jokes, or off- the-cuff ripostes.

Reagan

Reagan could spin a yarn like an old Irishman, but he was a master of a well-delivered one liner.  Here is  his classic answer in the second debate against Walter Mondale during the 1984 election to a moderator’s question about whether his age (he was 73) would affect his ability to perform in office.  Recall that Reagan stumbled badly in the first debate, appearing old and confused, and giving the Mondale campaign a faint glimmer of hope. Reagan’s masterfully delivered joke essentially ended the campaign.

Note to Trump campaign:  You can tell that it’s a joke because everyone—including Mondale and the moderator—are laughing. And Reagan drinks from a glass of water, probably to mask the smile on his own face.

FDR

These clips are from 1938 and 1944, but when you watch them, you realize that FDR could step out of a time machine, appear on a CNN debate or at a rally in Iowa and instantly be declared the front runner.  In these two clips, he’s everything that Trump isn’t:  Intimate, but distant; self-aware enough to poke fun of himself, but always aware of his immense power; and, he’s funny.

Grilled Millionaires Speech

Roosevelt delivered this address at the University of North Carolina in early December 1938. It was a low point of his presidency.  He had over-reached in spectacular fashion with his Supreme Court packing scheme, among other things.  And the Democrats were handily defeated in the November mid-term elections. Here he is responding to his critics. In the face of defeat, he is defiant but ebullient.  He can barely keep a straight face, he’s enjoying himself so much.

My Dog Fala

Here’s Roosevelt again in 1944. The Roosevelts had a scotch terrier named Fala. Republicans were circulating a story that Roosevelt had accidentally left Fala on an island in the Pacific and had re-routed a navy destroyer to retrieve the dog, at great cost to the tax payers.  Roosevelt responded with extended ridicule.

Note to Trump campaign: You can tell it’s a joke because everyone, including the Republicans, are laughing.

 

Hillary

Hillary supporters frequently say that the notoriously scripted and reserved campaigner is warm and funny in person. Every now and then, she’ll throw her head back with a genuine smile and a big, little bit brassy, laugh. Here’s a glimpse of that humor, near the end of what would be 11 hours of testimony before a hostile House Benghazi committee, when a Republican back-bencher is pressing her on whether she was home alone all night during the critical events in Libya.  She shows a sense of the absurd that I find reassuring in a president.

Note to Trump campaign: You know it’s a joke because people are laughing (though not the hapless Representative haplessly searching for a smoking gun.)

George Wallace

And, finally, as promised in the headline, Alabama Governor George Wallace telling a joke in 1964 at Auburn University. Wallace, was, of course, one of the most odious political figures of the 20^th century, a full-blown white supremacist and demagogue. Like Trump, he represented angry white people. I mean, really, really angry racist white people.  But, unlike Trump, he can tell a joke.

Note to Trump campaign: You can tell it’s a joke because 1) he says it’s a joke 2) He uses a format that most human beings recognize as a joke and 3) people are laughing.